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Meta on A Christmas Carol
A quick run-through of how A Christmas Carol foreshadows S6. (Spoilers for S6 and the DVD extras.)
(I’ve been meaning to write this for AGES - esp since a lot of it was thought out before S6 aired, and oh, it feels good to be vindicated. *preens* Oh and about half of this is![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
promethia_tenk's. Because we share a brain, as I'm sure you all know.)
Anyway, I’ll try to be brief...
Mirror, Mirror...
Basic, underlying symbolism: The fish are a metaphor for people (and people are stories!), and water is time. This is consistent throughout the whole show. In this episode however, things are... well. The fish swim in fog. And not just any fog, but ice crystal fog - it is somehow water in all three states at once, which means that we are dealing with frozen time!
The significance of this only just struck me. (Hello 5:02pm, 22/04/2011...)
Anyway, onward. First of all, Kazran and Abigail are mirrors for the Doctor and River.
Kazran has a lonely childhood as part of a privileged elite, and his father controls the skies - a job he is raised to do. The controls on the machine are isomorphic. Timelord parallels everywhere. And little Kazran just ‘wants to see the fish’ (like everyone else) - everyone has a story about the fish except him... (Heck, his words to Kazran about being nervous and rubbish and a bit shaky when he kisses Abigail for the first time has already been remarked on a lot re. the Doctor’s first kiss with River.) Kazran goes on to dress like the Doctor (see icon) and the parallels couldn't be any more obvious. I feel slightly silly writing this down, to be honest.
Although there is a very nice (and also rather dark) parallel between Kazran holding people as 'collateral', and the Doctor calling in his 'debts' in AGMGTW. The mirror goes both ways.
Anyway - Abigail is the love interest in the box. She willingly goes into the ice - just as River willingly goes into Stormcage - for the sake of those she loves. And she has a drastically reduced lifespan, which (and notice this) - the Doctor cannot fix. Every time Kazran takes her out, the dial goes down, just like River’s life is shortened every time the Doctor takes her out of Stormcage.
ETA: Here is my point, illustrated:
And, of course, he is very unwilling to make a final commitment - Kazran is very old by the time he finally let Abigail out for the last time, just as the Doctor has been running for 200 years by the time he finally commits and actually marries River. Ice crystal fog... He wants to freeze time (time is not the boss of me!), live outside it, control it. Yet he cannot control Abigail's life.
There is a beat where Abigail is looking in the window on her family and says "this is the life I can never have" and when Kazran asks her why, she takes his hand. Just like River cannot have a normal life - but she can share her life with the Doctor.
But Kazran gets re-written... Just like the Doctor, in S6. (More on this in another meta which is *thisclose* to finished.) But briefly: Ten learned that life was cruel, that what he wanted could never be his...
KAZRAN: As a very old friend of mine once took a very long time to explain, life isn't fair.
(Remember Ten raging against fate in EoT?)
And just like young Kazran is shown what he could grow up to be, so the Doctor (in AGMGTW) is shown what he is becoming - a Great Warrior, not a healer, or wise man, like he wanted to be when he grew up. The process of change is longer, and more difficult than Kazran’s, but it is the same: During S6 the Doctor is re-written. (Mostly by River, who is his storyteller, just as he is Kazran's.)
But there is more. Because not only do we have fish, we also have a shark. A terrifying, dangerous shark, which can swim right into Kazran’s bedroom and nearly devour him. And what soothes the shark? Song. Because River is not just Abigail - she is the shark also. When ‘untamed’ she is a danger, but - thanks to the part of the sonic which the shark eats, and which Kazran has the other part of! - ultimately the one who helps save the day: Both Abigail and the shark are needed to calm the skies, through Abigail’s Song... And if there is a more beautiful metaphor for Mels choosing to be River Song I cannot immediately think of it. And listen to that song:
You might remember me flailing over this song post-TWoRS, because everything just fitted. The Doctor finally lets in the music/agrees to calm the skies...
Because Melody is not just music - she is River, running water, time. And of course marrying/letting in River Song is what starts time again. He takes her hand, and is no longer filled with silence.
lonewytch has some lovely meta about how the Library and Kazran’s world mirror each other (the symbols especially), something I noticed myself, but never explored further, until now. Because everything ties back to the Library...
You see, I never thought beyond Kazran and Abigail’s ride through the night’s sky (a lovely parallel to all the Doctor’s and River’s nights), but once I began wondering about it, it seemed obvious that Kazran would not let Abigail die... I am sure that he put her back in the ice, saved forever more. How could he not?
Now as you've probably noticed, Abigail gives her life to save 4003 people. River gives hers to save 4022. And in both cases the people in question are held out of time, relative to the story, as the Doctor and his friends try to find a way to save them.
And then I went back to the scene where Kazran first shows the Doctor Abigail - they need to borrow an ice box and Kazran says: “She won’t mind. She loves the fish.”
Because, importantly, she has recorded a message:
The last line I shall illustrate with an image, because oh, it is too beautiful not to. This girl, caught between life and death, frozen in time forever - these are her final words:
(I’ve been meaning to write this for AGES - esp since a lot of it was thought out before S6 aired, and oh, it feels good to be vindicated. *preens* Oh and about half of this is
promethia_tenk's. Because we share a brain, as I'm sure you all know.)Anyway, I’ll try to be brief...
Basic, underlying symbolism: The fish are a metaphor for people (and people are stories!), and water is time. This is consistent throughout the whole show. In this episode however, things are... well. The fish swim in fog. And not just any fog, but ice crystal fog - it is somehow water in all three states at once, which means that we are dealing with frozen time!
The significance of this only just struck me. (Hello 5:02pm, 22/04/2011...)
Anyway, onward. First of all, Kazran and Abigail are mirrors for the Doctor and River.
Kazran has a lonely childhood as part of a privileged elite, and his father controls the skies - a job he is raised to do. The controls on the machine are isomorphic. Timelord parallels everywhere. And little Kazran just ‘wants to see the fish’ (like everyone else) - everyone has a story about the fish except him... (Heck, his words to Kazran about being nervous and rubbish and a bit shaky when he kisses Abigail for the first time has already been remarked on a lot re. the Doctor’s first kiss with River.) Kazran goes on to dress like the Doctor (see icon) and the parallels couldn't be any more obvious. I feel slightly silly writing this down, to be honest.
Although there is a very nice (and also rather dark) parallel between Kazran holding people as 'collateral', and the Doctor calling in his 'debts' in AGMGTW. The mirror goes both ways.
Anyway - Abigail is the love interest in the box. She willingly goes into the ice - just as River willingly goes into Stormcage - for the sake of those she loves. And she has a drastically reduced lifespan, which (and notice this) - the Doctor cannot fix. Every time Kazran takes her out, the dial goes down, just like River’s life is shortened every time the Doctor takes her out of Stormcage.
ETA: Here is my point, illustrated:
And, of course, he is very unwilling to make a final commitment - Kazran is very old by the time he finally let Abigail out for the last time, just as the Doctor has been running for 200 years by the time he finally commits and actually marries River. Ice crystal fog... He wants to freeze time (time is not the boss of me!), live outside it, control it. Yet he cannot control Abigail's life.
There is a beat where Abigail is looking in the window on her family and says "this is the life I can never have" and when Kazran asks her why, she takes his hand. Just like River cannot have a normal life - but she can share her life with the Doctor.
But Kazran gets re-written... Just like the Doctor, in S6. (More on this in another meta which is *thisclose* to finished.) But briefly: Ten learned that life was cruel, that what he wanted could never be his...
KAZRAN: As a very old friend of mine once took a very long time to explain, life isn't fair.
(Remember Ten raging against fate in EoT?)
And just like young Kazran is shown what he could grow up to be, so the Doctor (in AGMGTW) is shown what he is becoming - a Great Warrior, not a healer, or wise man, like he wanted to be when he grew up. The process of change is longer, and more difficult than Kazran’s, but it is the same: During S6 the Doctor is re-written. (Mostly by River, who is his storyteller, just as he is Kazran's.)
But there is more. Because not only do we have fish, we also have a shark. A terrifying, dangerous shark, which can swim right into Kazran’s bedroom and nearly devour him. And what soothes the shark? Song. Because River is not just Abigail - she is the shark also. When ‘untamed’ she is a danger, but - thanks to the part of the sonic which the shark eats, and which Kazran has the other part of! - ultimately the one who helps save the day: Both Abigail and the shark are needed to calm the skies, through Abigail’s Song... And if there is a more beautiful metaphor for Mels choosing to be River Song I cannot immediately think of it. And listen to that song:
When you’re alone, silence is all you know
When you’re alone, silence is all you know
Let in the noise and let it grow.
When you’re alone, silence is all you see
When you’re alone, silence is all you’ll be
Give me your hand and come to me.
When you are here, music is all around
When you are here, music is all around
Open your eyes, don’t make a sound
Let in the shadow, let in the shadow,
Let in the light of your bright shadow.
You might remember me flailing over this song post-TWoRS, because everything just fitted. The Doctor finally lets in the music/agrees to calm the skies...
Because Melody is not just music - she is River, running water, time. And of course marrying/letting in River Song is what starts time again. He takes her hand, and is no longer filled with silence.
lonewytch has some lovely meta about how the Library and Kazran’s world mirror each other (the symbols especially), something I noticed myself, but never explored further, until now. Because everything ties back to the Library...You see, I never thought beyond Kazran and Abigail’s ride through the night’s sky (a lovely parallel to all the Doctor’s and River’s nights), but once I began wondering about it, it seemed obvious that Kazran would not let Abigail die... I am sure that he put her back in the ice, saved forever more. How could he not?
Now as you've probably noticed, Abigail gives her life to save 4003 people. River gives hers to save 4022. And in both cases the people in question are held out of time, relative to the story, as the Doctor and his friends try to find a way to save them.
And then I went back to the scene where Kazran first shows the Doctor Abigail - they need to borrow an ice box and Kazran says: “She won’t mind. She loves the fish.”
Because, importantly, she has recorded a message:
ABIGAIL:
My name is Abigail Pettigrew, and I'm very grateful for Mr Sardick's kindness. My father...
YOUNG KAZRAN:
She starts to talk about the fish in a minute.
ABIGAIL:
…but I would not allow it. I could not have chosen this path were it not for the compassion and generosity of the great philanthropist and patron of the poor, Mr Elliot Sardick, but I'm also surrounded by the fish, the beautiful, iridescent, magical fish...
DOCTOR:
Why are these people here?
ABIGAIL:
..they catch the light as they dart through the fog...
The last line I shall illustrate with an image, because oh, it is too beautiful not to. This girl, caught between life and death, frozen in time forever - these are her final words:
no subject
1) The Sardick's keeping people as "collateral" fits very nicely with the Doctor calling in his debts in AGMGTW.
2) There's a beat where Abigail is looking in the window on her family and says "this is the life I can never have" and when Kazran asks her why, she takes his hand.
(This year's special was very nice, but . . . there's really no measuring up to the richness of ACC. I think it's always going to be a favorite.)
no subject
And this year's Special was... an epilogue. Quiet, calm, gathering together all the strands and showing how far we'd come. ACC was... the trailer? The teaser? The thing that said 'Hold on tight, we're going on a hell of a ride!'
Couldn't be more different, all told. :)
no subject
I love the way you can make me see things I can't see by myself. I watched ACC last week with my son because that was (conveniently, for Christmas) where we were up to in our rewatch and whilst I had in mind your words about the parallels with the Doctor in S6 I still didn't come up with anything new. I wish I could see things the way you do! :-)
no subject
Although I am happy to share - it's lovely to be able to show everyone else all the layers I see. <3
no subject
But i totally see what you mean about the shark symbolising River. It's wild and untamed, and there's one point where its monstrous mouth bursts through the cupboard (and cupboards are also loaded with symbolism in Moffat's Who) and gets stuck there; so that mouth really shows that fear of being consumed, which speaks of the Doctor's fear of River's role in his life.
I love the way you pull out the parallels between Kazran and the Doctor.
Also, Abigail's message and that image of River which i never picked up on at all. Thank you for pointing that out. ♥
no subject
One part of me can't believe it's taken so long. The other part knows that I couldn't see it this clearly until S6 was finished...
I emailed you back about the significance of the Big Shark (i read it as Angel/Beast symbolism and a metaphor for the axis mundi being disrupted, with Abigail (angel) in the Underworld and Beast (shark) in the Upperworld)
And I like it very much! That's the lovely thing about metaphors - you can have as many layers as you want. :)
But i totally see what you mean about the shark symbolising River.
Promethia and I speculated on this... way, way back. The fact that the shark and Abigail were two parts of the same whole - 'twas very nice to have that confirmed!
It's wild and untamed, and there's one point where its monstrous mouth bursts through the cupboard (and cupboards are also loaded with symbolism in Moffat's Who) and gets stuck there; so that mouth really shows that fear of being consumed, which speaks of the Doctor's fear of River's role in his life.
Well she kills him with a kiss... She's a shark in disguise.
I love the way you pull out the parallels between Kazran and the Doctor.
They're... kinda ridiculous? I mean, there are SO MANY I'm sure I only touched on half. (I've had this icon for so long!)
Also, Abigail's message and that image of River which i never picked up on at all. Thank you for pointing that out. ♥
And that was something I'd never thought of before, and only noticed thanks to your meta talking about the Library. So thank you. ♥
no subject
Ooo, I like that too. I've been trying on and off to think of how to explain River = Abigail + the space shark in a way that was liable to convince anyone (though agree with elisi that it's easier now season six is over) and it . . . it sounds like such a stretch. But they *are* connected and I like how you explain that. Plus they do share the same ice chest in the course of the episode and, yes, Abigail was the only one who could tame the shark.
Interesting, though, that in this case the Upperworld *is* the natural home of the Beast and, if Abigail isn't meant to be frozen on ice, then at least the Underworld of the planet below is where she belongs. But the two *are* disconnected and the world is disrupted because the energy (song) can't flow between them. Reminds me of discussions about TPO/TBB and the gendering of the sun and the underworld and is the problem that River is getting her female-ness all up in the sun/TARDIS and that's what causes the universe to blow up? And the conclusion that it wasn't really so much about her or the Doctor being here or there or at the wrong place on the poles, but just that disruption of connection.
It actually first occurred to me that the shark was River too by the most ridiculous chain of logic (and, god, I love that this show can work this way). I was watching the
stupidpirate episode, where the Siren/River parallels were so heavy-handed I was groaning at the screen, and at one point one of the crew compares her to a shark and the Doctor rambles out "a green singing shark in an evening gown . . ." which brought to mind River in her green evening gown diving into the TARDIS pool . . . and then to the shark in the Christmas special . . .so that mouth really shows that fear of being consumed, which speaks of the Doctor's fear of River's role in his life.
Lines about being eaten/the threat of eating seem to come up a lot in Moff (he does it in Jekyll too). In this particular instance, I like that Kazran's concern that "it's gonna eat us" (if the shark is River) echo's Melody's cry that the spaceman is gonna eat her.
no subject
You're right and it does link back to that idea of the duality being an illusion, perhaps. That it's not about who belongs where but that the connection between spaces isn't broken and that thresholds are able to be crossed. Perhaps like you say, it's not that they're in the worng place, only that they are held there and not allowed to transit freely. Maybe it isn't about angel/beast, male/female, above/below dichotomies, but is actually turning that idea on its head, showing that separation is an illusion. The angel can belong in the underworld, the beast in the upperworld because at the end of the day they are the same thing, connected. Ooooh.
It actually first occurred to me that the shark was River too by the most ridiculous chain of logic
lol, i like your chain of logic there...but it's these small things that we have to look out for. I love it when i notice a small thing then my head goes in a really weird direction, then suddenly i'm having a revelation about some symbolism or whatnot used in the show.
Lines about being eaten/the threat of eating seem to come up a lot in Moff
I know, we did an analysis of series 5 and 6 on gallifreybase, and seriously the number of mouths - usually monstrous mouths - loads. I should do meta on it, but... *vague hands*
no subject
Otherwise, the parallels are interesting, though I'm not a big fan of the way the Doctor/River relationship is turning out. I'm hoping her stay in Stormcage is temporary (as in, not her whole life with occasional jaunts outside with the Doctor) until the deal with the Silence is cleared up, and then they can go have adventures. Otherwise it just looks like she's the typical mum-stays-in-the-home while Dad works in the dangerous yet glamorous Outside scenario.
no subject
I am speaking metaphorically, here. I do that rather a lot... ETA: Very belated edit - here is my point, illustrated. (Spoilers for the DVD extra mini episodes - in case you haven't seen them, this will spoil you/not make much sense. *g*)
I'm hoping her stay in Stormcage is temporary (as in, not her whole life with occasional jaunts outside with the Doctor)
Well we know that she gets out, that she becomes a professor and that not only does she keep having adventures with the Doctor in the future (as she tells Amy at the end of TWoRS, which is obviously when she's just been released), but she also goes on to have her own independent life, with a team of her own. We might not see all of it, but it's certainly there.